Pigeons of Venice

ABOVE: A pigeon and friend in the Piazza San
Marco before grain vendors were banned.

By Durant Imboden

Pigeons
once rivaled cats as the traditional, if unofficial, mascots of Venice. In A Venetian Bestiary, Jan Morris wrote:

"The pigeon is, if not actually sacred, at
least highly respected in Venice. You will never be offered him roasted in a Venetian
restaurant. On the contrary, sometimes invalid pigeons, having lost a leg perhaps in a
more than usually unseemly scramble for peanuts, become known individually to the waiters
at the Piazza caf�s, and are thereafter privileged for life, allowed to preen themselves
on unoccupied tables, and fed wonderfully sustaining morsels of toasted sandwich. Pigeons
can get away with almost anything in Venice, and sometimes you will see one, all puffed up
with pride, swaggering into the narthex of the Basilica San Marco itself."

Morris added that the city fed the pigeons
for many years until an insurance company took on the job as an advertising gimmick in the
1950s. Each day, a company employee would strew corn about St. Mark's Square until the birds
descended en masse:

"Only for a second or two did the insurance
company get its money's worth: for there was just enough time to see, before the doves
destroyed the pattern, that the maize had been poured on the ground in the shape of two
huge letters--A.G., for Assicurazioni Generali."

In Venice: A Literary Companion, Ian Littlewood explained the
origins of the Piazza San Marco's pigeon colony:

"According
to tradition, it was from the gallery [of the Basilica] where we are standing that the
original pigeons were released on Palm Sunday, weighted by pieces of paper tied to their
legs. Most of them ended up on the dinner table as part of the Doge's Easter largesse to
the populace, but the rugged survivors were felt to have earned St. Mark's protection. So
year by year a few more pigeons found refuge among the domes on the basilica. They have
since grown more numerous, and the enthusiasm of most tourists for the birds is
short-lived, but as the average visitor now spends less than twenty-four hours in the
city they still have plenty of friends."

If you're arriving in Venice by car, a hotel in
Mestre or Marghera
(on the Italian mainland) may be convenient.

If it's summer and you love beach resorts, the
Lido di Venezia is a
good choice.

Otherwise, we urge you to stay in Venice's
historic center, for a simple reason: Venice is at its best in early
morning and the evening, when daytrippers are gone and you can enjoy the
city without the crowds.